Industry Tactics With Friendly Rich

RIP Jeff Burke -- I am so sad to see you leave us. We are bassoonless. Jeff Burke was a beautiful soul, a true original, and giant among us. I mean, he played the bassoon and Theremin! I remember asking Bob Wiseman: "Do you know any bassoon players in town?" ...and the rest is a rich history. I'm forever grateful to Bob for helping forge that connection, and to Jeff for every musical adventure we had together. I cherish each of them. When the Sun Ra Arkestra came to Toronto, Jeff quickly put on the space smock and joined the band. They tried to abduct him back to live with them in their interstellar jazz house. Jeff was honoured to be asked, as you could imagine. But he stayed in Toronto, wanting to be close to his daughter Seren, his family, his partner Juliann, and of course, the community of musicians that he knew and loved. That was JB. He was famously late for gigs, but I quickly realized that the art of booking Jeff was one of deep anticipation. Who gives a shit about time, the downb